


The Life of Death

by Nixie_Genesis



Category: Original Work
Genre: Aliens, Background Relationships, Background stories, Death, Gen, Original Fiction, part of a larger work of fiction, sort of, the lord of the dead creates puppies, where my head canon goes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-10
Updated: 2017-05-10
Packaged: 2018-10-30 04:31:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10869159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nixie_Genesis/pseuds/Nixie_Genesis
Summary: Euri Paemenos, Ouranos and Guardian of the Dead, is visited in his realm by a young child. Iahi Nahin, a Nidarian refugee living in Uhur, wanders into the Realm of the Dead and befriends one of the more fearsome Ouranos.“Is it true you collect dead people?”Euri Paemenos, Ouranos of the Otherworld and Guardian of the Dead, glanced down to find a small child to his right. One of the Nidarian children, he figured. Her grayed skin and dark eyes suggested her Abyssal heritage. A child who wandered too far from Vasilkeon, the Shadow Domain.“Child,” he said, “where are your guardians? You should not be wandering alone.”





	The Life of Death

**Author's Note:**

> This is part of an established work of fiction. Basically, AO3 will be where most of my background stuff goes. Basic background info, Uhur is the center of the Cosmos; the Ouranos are eternal beings charged with the construction and protection of creation. Euri is the Ouranos of the Otherworld and Guardian of the Dead. Iahi is a young girl from Nidaria, a planet destroyed by the Void. Her people were saved by the Ouranos Noctus Eruschyo and brought to Uhur. Iahi is about the age of a seven-year-old human, in Nidarian years she is in her 30s (Nidarians come of age around 150 or so).  
> I think that's it...

“Is it true you collect dead people?”

Euri Paemenos, Ouranos of the Otherworld and Guardian of the Dead, glanced down to find a small child to his right. One of the Nidarian children, he figured. Her grayed skin and dark eyes suggested her Abyssal heritage. A Nidarian child who wandered too far from Vasilkeon, the Shadow Domain.

“Child,” he said, “where are your guardians? You should not be wandering alone.”

The child shuffled her feet on the gravel path. Her hands were clasped behind her back and she glanced at the ground. “Agad is with Eruschyo, Esha went to spar with Aitana. I’ve finished my lessons and decided to walk through the gardens.”

At the Western edge of Ethermea, and shrouded in mist, the Gardens of Itriou grew. Euri had not desired gardens within his realm, he found the idea frivolous. Euri made the allowance for Usola, his spouse —and Daekos, his wife’s brother if they were being honest. He found it difficult to deny Usola what she desired. Nothing about his realm allowed for a garden to thrive; light did not pass through Ethermea as regularly as other domains and a perpetual, opaque mist covered the ghastly blue-gray, clay ground. But, Usola insisted and Daekos agreed and so, he allowed Eliorae’s Aeonos to do what they could. Their efforts resulted in mostly poisonous flora—which did not surprise Euri—and slippery moss covered most of the ground. Thick, winding vines and large trees with leaves that looked like everlasting, silver rain grew along the paths. He sat under one now, as the small child at his side continued talking, to his dismay.

“These gardens are so different. Why aren’t there any animals? In Eliorae’s domain, there are lots of animals. My favorite are the flying beasts in Apero’s domain though, but Apero says they are not for playing, they have jobs to do. What’s your favorite animal? I…”

Euri’s eyes widened and he pressed his lips together tightly. _Are_   _all children this talkative?_ He wondered. She seemed to speak without taking a single breath.

“ _Child_ ,” he said, exasperated. “Was there something you needed?”

The child shook her head, she glanced up at him through her silver bangs and pushed the wild tresses from her face. “You looked lonely,” she finally said. “I thought you might want someone to talk to.”

The sentiment took him aback; no one ever worried about _him_. Euri grew accustomed to traveling around Uhur relatively ignored. At a loss for words, he curved his lips into what might be a smile and nodded. “Thank you, child. I was simply taking in the _peace_ of the gardens.” 

The child did not take his subtle hint. Instead, she nodded and took a seat next to him. He towered over her minuscule form, and yet he fought the urge to move from her proximity. He allowed only Usola to invade his personal space. Most mortals cowered in his presence. Their fear was spurred by the meaning of his name; Death comes for all.  

“Is this where the dead people go?” The child asked.

Euri resigned himself to the conversation with a grumbling sigh. “No. They are within another dimension, beyond the gateways.”

“Can you see them?”

“Yes.”

“I can see them too,” she said as if all mortals possessed such an ability.

Euri looked to her in surprise. “You can see the dead?”

The child’s head bobbed enthusiastically. “I see my papa all the time. My mama still hasn’t visited me though.”

Euri now remembered, the fallen Nidarian Queen mothered this child. “Some souls take a bit longer to adjust to crossing over,” he said with as much warmth as he could muster. Then, realization dawned on him. “Child, did you come here hoping to see your mother?”

She fidgeted with her fingers and finally nodded solemnly. “I couldn’t find her. I was about to go back to Vasilkeon when I saw you,” she paused. “Everyone is afraid of you, but…you’re not so bad.”

Euri couldn’t help but smirk. He raised his hands to remove his hood and hesitated. While the child seemed unaffected by his fearsome energy, his appearance would surely frighten her. Instead, he simply shifted his arms in his heavy robes. “You should be returning. Your siblings will be worried.”

“Yeah.” The child leaped from the bench and turned. “Will you be here tomorrow?” She asked.

The thought of spending his time with this child should cause him discomfort. Yet, he found himself saying “Yes.”

“Good!” The child said brightly. “I like talking with you.”

Euri watched curiously after the child as she ran back towards the fairer parts of Uhur. 

A familiar energy entered the space around him. “You’re smiling,” Usola said.

Euri cleared his throat and stood. “Impossible,” he said gruffly. “I don’t _smile_.” But, when he met his spouse’s eyes, he did once more, smile—a little.

 

* * *

 

Every mortal being in Uhur studied under an Ouranos, the Eternal Beings of the Cosmos. Most Nidarians who escaped the destruction of their planet, chose Noctus, The Ouranos of the Abyss.They learned to manipulate shadow's energy. Though, some chose others, like Iahi’s sister, Esha, chose Daekos, the Ouranos of Balance. Esha studied under Aitana, Daekos’ Hand of Glory, as soon as she could handle a bow and spear. Iahi’s oldest brother, Agad, chose Apero, the Ouranos of the Infinite Realm. The High King of Uhur helped prepare Agad for duties as the Nidarian King. Politics bored Iahi and, unlike Esha, she had no interest in the ways of weaponry and war. Iahi followed Noctus through most of her childhood and learned a great deal about calling shadow energy, but even Noctus knew her interest laid in other things. He encouraged Iahi to spend time with different Ouranos and Aeonos. None truly meshed with her.

Iahi wandered into the Domain of Ethermea on a whim. She had heard the dead wandered in the gardens of Lord Paemenos’ realm. Iahi hoped to find her mother, but she did not expect to run into the Lord of the Dead, himself. At first, she felt her heart beat wildly in her chest and her stomach twisted. She meant to introduce herself, to pay her respects. But then, curiosity took hold and something magnetic drew her to him.  

“Is it true,” Iahi said with as much courage as she could muster, “you collect dead people?” Her mother always called her impetuous.

They spoke for a short time, and while everything Iahi heard about Lord Paemenos told her she should fear him, she instead felt oddly comfortable. The next day, as he said, the Lord of Ethermea sat on the same stone bench under the same tree. He seemingly waited for her, yet he turned sharply when she called; “hello!” as if he did not expect her to come.

“I did not ask your name last time,” The Guardian of the Dead said.

“Iahi,” she answered. Then she remembered Noctus’ instructions; an Ouranos must be greeted with respect. She added quickly, “Lord Paemenos.”

He waved a hand shrouded by the sleeve of his robes. “You may call me Euri, child.” She noticed the tip of a red finger, the skin was slick as though coated in blood. A pale blue flame burned in his eyes that were hidden under his wide hood, and his pallid, gray lips pressed into what might have been a smile.

Iahi began to spend her days with Euri instead of in Vasilkeon. They met in the same place and sometimes they stayed under the tree, other times they walked along the garden paths. The toxic plants and vines curled away from their Lord’s path and gave them safe passage. Iahi spoke, and Euri listened. Iahi asked questions and Euri did his best to answer them.

“How come you never take your hood off?” She asked him one day.

“To look directly into my eyes would subject you to judgment,” he said. “It is how I know where a soul goes in my domain. For someone living, it would cause intense pain. Though,” he paused thoughtfully, “you are a child, so you do not have much for me to judge.”

“Do you judge if a person is bad or not?”

“No,” Euri said. “I only examine their actions. Then, I judge what is needed for their spirit to atone and send them where their spirit can rest and restore.”

“What about the bad people?”

Euri took a breath, as she noticed he always did when he tried to explain his work to her. “There are very few beings in this Cosmos who are all good or all bad. Judgment—in that case, thankfully—falls upon Daekos. No soul finds punishment of my doing in the Lands of Aerebos.”

Iahi nodded in understanding. “What about your hands?”

Euri slowly pushed the heavy sleeves from his crimson hands. “They are symbolic. The blood, so to speak, of every living being, is on my hands—I take their death and their deeds upon myself so their souls may rest and recover.” He gestured to the robes that hung on him like a funeral. “My robes symbolize the heaviness of my burden.” 

In that moment, Iahi felt pity for the Guardian of the Dead. Ouranos chose their physical form and could change them at will. Others, like Uhur's High Queen and Ouranos of Life, Eliorae, chose a form of beauty. Euri chose a form of pain and discomfort.

“Does anyone help you?” She asked and brought her hand slowly to touch his. She expected her fingers to wet with blood. Instead, she touched smooth, dry skin.

“My son, Gudran. He guides the souls I call. And my spouse, Usola is my support in judgment. But only I can carry the burdens, it is my purpose.” Iahi realized Euri spoke more in this moment than in any of their previous conversations.

A beat of silence fell between them. She twisted her mouth, then asked; “when you say, son…do you mean…”

Euri chuckled, so softly Iahi almost missed it. “Not in the way mortals have children, no. He is a fractal of my and Usola’s spark.” 

Iahi understood a spark to be something like a conscious or soul and it took the place of a heart in the Ouranos. The spark thrummed in their core. Iahi remembered the first time she realized Noctus did not have a heartbeat like herself or her mother or siblings and she found the sound strange and unsettling at first. Though, the act of taking a fractal from an Ouranos’ spark and creating another being still mystified Iahi.

Iahi saw Gudran only a handful of times since arriving in Uhur. He wore dark robes like Euri, but no hood and two great sickles crossed over his back in scabbards. A matrix of dark veins mottled his skin from his jaw and down his neck. Black, instead of white, covered the sclera of his eyes from lid to lid. His irises were a silver ring, and his pupils were a milky opaque blue. A shock of bright blue hair grew from his head and he kept it in a long braid down his back. Like his father, Gudran kept to himself. Like his mother, others in Uhur approached him without fear.

“He’s an Aeonos?” She asked.

“No. Not exactly. Aeonos are fractals of _one_ Ouranos’ spark,” Euri explained. “Thanes, Idenos, and Aitana are Daekos’ Aeonos—they are of his spark alone. When I begot Gudran, I understood that he should have a sense of mercy and compassion—qualities I do not have—so when he appeared to shepherd souls, they would not fear him. For that reason, Usola and I both took fractals of our sparks and combined them.”

Iahi frowned. “You let Agad take our mother’s body back to Vasilkeon. You were nice and not scary. I think maybe you forget you’re a good person. Sometimes I forget I am when I’m really sad.” She looked to the gray ground beneath them and watched the opaque mist hover and swirl. “You always seem sad. Is that because of the…burden?”  

“As the Lord and Guardian of the Dead, I know a great deal but I cannot always reveal my knowledge. Sometimes,” he paused as if to find words Iahi might understand. “Sometimes I do feel sad about the things I see, yes.”

“You see things…like the Triad sees things?”

Euri hummed positively. “Though they know more than I—and I do not envy them for it.”

Iahi looked up to Euri’s eyes under his hood and smiled. “It’s hard for me to keep secrets sometimes too.” Her smile faded. “Even bad ones.”

This time, Euri’s glowing eyes narrowed. “A child should not have to keep terrible secrets, Iahi. Who has put such a burden on you?”

Iahi shook her head, she felt her chest grow tight and without a second thought buried her face in Euri’s robes.

“Child…” Euri’s voice soothed. “Who has frightened you so?”

“The man behind the Chamel’s eyes,” Iahi mumbled into the stiff fabric.

“Zopai.” The Fallen Ouranos, the Deceiver, the Wardum of the Void. Euri’s voice, for a moment, darkened as he said the man’s name—a whisper of the doom he could create. 

Iahi nodded and clutched the robes tighter, refusing to look away from them. She thought by his name alone, if she looked from where she hid, the man with the green eyes might appear as he did in her dreams. 

“He cannot harm you here, Iahi.” Euri’s long, bony fingers laid over her shoulder gently. She only clutched him tighter. She took a deep, shuddering breath. Euri smelled of wet earth, ash, and something indolic and ephemeral. “You…” he tightened his hold on her shoulder as he searched for words. “You are brave to speak of your fear.”

“I didn’t tell mama. I wasn’t brave,” she said quietly. “The man wouldn’t let me. But Eruschyo saw, and he banished the man from the Chamel. I still have nightmares about him.”

Euri’s awkward hold comforted her. “He _will not_ harm you here,” Euri said firmly, and Iahi believed him.

 

* * *

 

Euri found himself pacing through his halls as Solaris’ faint light grayed Rau’s dark sky. An idea percolated in his mind, and he decided to seek out the one person—besides Usola—he knew would honestly assess his thoughts.

The borders of Apero's Infinite Realm, Oparanosyn, went far beyond what any mortal eye could see. Even Euri struggled to find the vast realm's end. The halls of High King of Uhur were white with floor to ceiling windows and skylights which allowed light to flood the great palace. The grand building embodied Apero's larger than life energy.

“Euri!” Apero called from the spacious entryway. He dismissed the Iothos who led Euri through the corridors. “To what do I owe such a rare visit?” Apero asked and moved to embrace Euri. 

“I request we speak in private, Opaeon.” Euri’s ethereal form solidified and grasped his fellow Ouranos’ arm. “I require your counsel,” he said quietly. Once they were away from the busy Aeonos and Iothos and prying ears, Euri spoke. “I believe I know of a way to find our brother.”

Apero grunted. “I do not think of him as such anymore.”

“Perhaps not,” Euri replied. “But it does not change the fact that we are all of the same spark—of the power of sight. The sight of the world as it is,” he gestured to Apero, “Aeraisth's sight of the world behind eyes and veils, and the sight of the world beyond mortality,” he gestured to himself. “If he can see us, surely, together, we can see him.”

“He answers to Zopai, Euri. Do not forget what he has become. I assume you have a plan?” Apero crossed his arms over his chest. Euri envied his brother’s confidence even if it did come with an air of arrogance.

Euri shrugged the sleeves of his robes from his arms. He moved his hands before him in a dance with death’s energy. Red-colored Aiuma—the fluid energy all Ouranos and Aeonos contained within—dripped from his fingers and pooled on the floor into the shape of a twelve-point star. The plasma then became viscous and wreathed around itself as it grew from the symbol.  Between Euri and Apero, an ethereal beast took form. Its shoulders were hunched with and a long neck traveled to a large skull with a sharp snout. Its mouth, filled with sharp and gnarled teeth, remained open in a perpetual grin. The creature stood on four legs with clawed paws and its long tail curled behind it. The red plasma faded to translucent fur, the same color as the blue flame in Euri’s eyes. The creature’s skeletal structure showed through the translucent muscles and hair. As it stood on all fours, its head came to Euri’s chest.

Apero brought a thoughtful hand to his chin. “Aergos could never fault you for lack of creativity,” he smirked. “Or showmanship.”

“They are not as pleasing to the eyes as your winged hounds, I know,” Euri said and patted his beast on the head. Its form was tangible despite its appearance. “But, while yours search the world of the living, mine will search the dimensions beyond.”

“With Gudran,” said Apero. Euri nodded. Apero knelt before the beast, his hands ran along the ghostly muscles and fur. The creature’s blue, flaming pelt reflected in his silver eyes. “Did the Nidarian child inspire you?”

“Somewhat. I suspect Aeraisth—Zopai has been using the Allosmos to travel through the cosmos unseen. I also suspect Iahi may be…” Euri’s voice trailed and Apero’s eyes widened in understanding. “I do not know for sure, Opaeon. But, if Aeraisth—” he sighed heavily, “ _Zopai_ is contacting her through dreams, I believe he has access to realms beyond our own.”  

His brother stood and Apero's silver eyes narrowed in thought. “Do it.”

“Should we bring the matter before the Council?”

“No.” Apero turned and placed his hands behind his back. “In fact, you were never here. You have mine and Eliorae’s blessing to send your beasts after Melnakru,” Apero said cold enough to make Euri cringe. He found it difficult to think of their brother in such a way, a rare instance where he showed more mercy than Apero.

Euri left Apero’s domain with the hound in tow. He entered Ethermea and found Iahi in their usual meeting place. She sat on the same stone bench and under the same weeping tree. Her small face lit with happiness when he approached.

“I thought you forgot,” she said and ran to embrace him. Euri still found himself uncomfortable with such gestures but allowed her small arms to wrap around him. She caught sight of the hound and backed away at first, then smiled. “What is it? It looks like a hound…but different.” She looked up at the beast who was several times larger than she.

“She is a Nymae Ingos, a Hound of the Otherworld.”

“She’s beautiful.” Iahi’s lavender eyes set alight with the creature’s blue flame. The hound sniffed her outstretched palm and pressed her head into Iahi’s touch. “Does she have a name?”

“No,” Euri answered. “I think her master should give her a name.” Iahi nodded. “So,” Euri continued, “what will you name her?”

Iahi’s eyes widened once more and her mouth fell. “She’s _mine_?”

“Yes. She will keep you safe from threats in this world, in the Allosmos, and the Otherworlds.”

Iahi looked intently at the creature before her. “Losi,” she said. “I will name her Losi. It means strange beauty in Nidarian.”

“I might have known you would see her as beautiful, child,” Euri said, and his lips curled into a warm smile.

“Everything about her is beautiful.” Iahi gently stroked Losi’s ghostly fur. “Even her see-through toe pads!” She struggled to lift the hound’s enormous paw and giggled. “I love her. Thank you.” 

This time, Euri knelt and allowed Iahi’s arms to wrap around his neck, and he returned the embrace. “Thank _you_ ,” Euri responded. And when Iahi asked why, he said; “for reminding me there is no beauty without strangeness, and that not all fear what is unknown and different.”

 

* * *

 

 When Iahi returned to Vasilkeon with Losi, Noctus looked as though he might jump from his physical form.

“What is _that_?” He asked and the shadow around him grew.

“ _She_ is Losi,” Iahi said with her hands grasped gently into Losi’s fur. She sat upon Losi’s shoulders as if she rode a nightsteed. “Euri gave her to me. Isn’t she beautiful?”

Noctus nodded, still wide-eyed. “She certainly is something. I must… _thank_ Euri, the next time I see him.”

 

####

 

**Author's Note:**

> I don't have a beta reader, so if there are any glaring mistakes I apologize!


End file.
